Working under the assumption he does not become the Republican nominee or POTUS, does he even want to be a Senator any more? He's alienated his entire party it seems like at this point, and has shown little interest in being an effective legislator.

Could he win the Republican primary if he did run?

he'd win a Texas Rep. primary in a cake walk, he hasn't alienated the R. party, only his fellow Senators

I'm not sure he'd win the Texas primary in a cake walk, it depends on who he runs against. What if Rick Perry ran against him? I'm not a Perry fan either, but that might be a bit tight of a race?

Now Cruz would win re-election in a cake walk, I'll grant you that, if he gets past the primary. Outside of maybe J.J. Watt, I'm not sure if the Democrats could find a candidate who would have much of a chance (and Watt probably isn't even a Democrat, and still wouldn't get the North Texas vote).

(07-30-2015 12:31 PM)ausowl Wrote:  he'd win a Texas Rep. primary in a cake walk, he hasn't alienated the R. party, only his fellow Senators

I guess that's what I don't get - "only his fellow senators" happens to be the group of people he needs to work with to get things done. It seems like he wanted to be Senator to hear himself talk and run for President. Once the latter has failed, he only has the former. (Granted, that describes a lot of Senators, but Cruz seems to take it to an entirely new level.) Maybe after the failed run, he tries to mend fences and become an effective Senator. Not sure it's in his DNA though.

That's one thing I've often heard about Ted Kennedy - once he finally gave up on running for President he was considered a highly effective Senator and actually worked across the aisle quite a bit. (I'm defining effective in a more neutral 'get things done' sense here - Cruz would be 'effective' at getting completely different things done than Kennedy was.)